MINNEAPOLIS -- The number of swine flu outbreaks reported in Minnesota schools has doubled in a week to 134, with the heaviest concentration in the seven-county metropolitan area, the Minnesota Department of Health reported Wednesday.
The most outbreaks were reported in Hennepin County at 24. Thirteen schools in Washington County reported them as did 10 in Dakota County. Ramsey and Anoka counties both reported seven.
Just northwest of the metropolitan area, six Sherburne County schools reported outbreaks. Blue Earth and Olmsted counties each had five. Altogether, schools in 67 counties reported at least one outbreak of flu-related absences.
The figures were current as of Saturday. There has been a rapid climb in the number of affected schools from fewer than 10 during the second week of September -- when most schools opened -- to 67 by Sept. 19 and 134 by last weekend.
Kristen Ehresmann, director of the Infectious Disease, Epidemiology and Control Division for the Minnesota Department of Health, said the skyrocketing number of outbreaks was expected and will probably continue.
"We sort have been anticipating this," she said. "The longer kids are in school the greater the opportunity for exponential growth" in outbreaks.
"The good news is that there are 3,000 schools in the state, so it's a small proportion of them reporting illness," she said.
The Health Department has been tracking flu outbreaks in schools for years but recently began reporting such outbreaks by county due to the public's interest in the data.
The department defines a school outbreak as when at least 5 percent of students are absent with a flu-like illness or at least three students are out from the same elementary school classroom.
Ehresmann said the swine flu, also called the pandemic H1N1 flu, is probably behind the outbreaks. However, only people sick enough to be hospitalized are usually tested.
More than 300 people in Minnesota have been hospitalized with the swine flu since May. Three have died. Children age 5 to 18 have accounted for nearly 40 percent of the confirmed cases, according to the Health Department, followed by adults age 25 to 49.
Minnesota schools typically see very few flu cases this time of year. Absences due to the seasonal flu usually spike from late January to early February.
With the swine flu vaccine still not available in the state, the Health Department continues to recommend sick students and school staff stay home until at least 24 hours after their fever is gone without the use medication. That's usually 5 to 7 days.
Health Department spokesman Buddy Ferguson said officials expect to get the first doses of swine flu vaccine in the state in "a week or two." He could not be more specific on Wednesday.
The first doses will come in a nasal mist. The state hasn't been told how many doses will arrive, but they expected the first shipment to be "relatively small," he said.
Ferguson said health care and emergency medical workers will get the first doses for three reasons: They could expose medically vulnerable patients, their absence could cripple the health care system and past experiences suggest they are being exposed.
Ehresmann said there will eventually be enough vaccine in the state to treat everyone who wants it. The department is recommending even people who think they have been exposed to the swine flu get vaccinated.
"Obviously, we really would have liked to have the vaccine in September, but all things considered I think that this is still going to be beneficial," Ehresmann said.
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